Tire Tales

All is good in my universe.

My son is home safely from having his Christmas with his dad and that side of his family.

I say that because we had an interesting trip getting him to his dad on Saturday. Ended up that his dad had to come here to pick him up.

We had a blow-out on the highway.

You know what though? God's hand was with us throughout the whole ordeal.

We were only about fifteen or twenty minutes down the highway when the tire blew. Before the tire blew, it started to shimmy, so I'd already started to slow down and pull over to the side of the road.

Shudder to think what might have happened if we'd been going full speed when it blew. There was a huge hole in the side that smoked and smelled of burned rubber. Ew!

It's been a long time, but I've had experience before with changing tires. Since I'd never had to do so in this car, it took me a few minutes to find the donut, jack, etc. Perfect opportunity to teach my son how to change a tire.

Couldn't get the lug nuts loose. Both of us tried for ten minutes to loosen the crazy things (Lefty Loosey/Righty Tighty). Froze our tails off. I even grabbed my son's saline bottle out of his bag and squirted it all over the nuts just to try something - anything at that point.

We ended up hopping back into the car to get warm before trying again. At that moment a policeman drove by and took pity on us.

I'd just prayed that the Lord would send us a kind soul, preferrably a policeman. He loosened the lug nuts, we finished jacking up the car, my son popped off the old tire and put on the donut, tightened the nuts and threw everything back in the trunk.

It's nice having a strong strapping son to help out when necessary.

We were off and running - and the policeman even wished us a Merry Christmas.

Turned around and drove back home. Just did not feel like taking anymore chances. Ended up stuck by the side of the road for no more than twenty minutes. Got home, called his dad, then ordered some new tires from Sears.

Picked up my son tonight in the pea-soup foggy skies and icy roads. I never seem to get a break this time of the year.

Well, I guess that's what guardian angels are for. And sometimes they're dressed as policemen.